Critor

It had arrived by post. It was the gift that her son, an explorer in Africa, sent to Madame Bodot for her birthday. That, a gift, a snake?
Yes, because Crictor was no ordinary snake. Well cared for, well fed, well brought up, he became capable of prodigies. When he learned to read and count, he formed numbers and letters with his body. It was used as a game for children. But his greatest achievement was yet to come. Because a burglar haunted the streets of the small town...

It was in the sixties, after The Adventures of the Mellops Family that Tomi Ungerer undertakes, in New York, a series of albums in honor of animals hitherto unloved or completely absent from children's books: a boa constrictor, Crictor; an octopus, Emile; a bat, Rufus; a vulture, Orlando and a kangaroo, Adelaide. They belie their reputations, embody goodness, save lives, and prove to be more human than those who first rejected them.